The World Wide Web (Web) has become a useful tool for researching and obtaining information. In order to obtain useful information using the Web, information must be accessed, typically using search tools. The process of accessing information on the Web is a task that requires tools, which not only find and retrieve meaningful information for a given query, but also present it to the user in a comprehensive manner. Stated another way, information access has two main components: 1) search and retrieve a result set and 2) visualization (analysis and synthesis) of the result set. Lately there has been a growth in the number of tools and applications in the information retrieval area that attempt to make the process of information access easier for users. However, problems arise with these tools and applications. One such problem involves how to construct a good query to submit to the search system. Another such problem involves how to obtain and synthesize a relevant and manageable set of answers. Current system do not provide an integrated solution, which adequately addresses these problems.
A need arises for a technique by which improved queries can be constructed, meaningful and relevant information can be retrieved by those queries, and the retrieved information can be presented to the user in a useful and comprehensive manner.